KTVB debuted its DTV 24/7 NewsChannel in Boise, Idaho at the end of October, making it one of the first stations in the country to run two separately programmed signals on their DTV channel; one in HD and one in SD. The project was built in less than 90 days by Burst, a systems integrator based in Denver, Colo.

A Belo-owned property, KTVB began the 24/7 NewsChannel by providing time-shifted newscasts, as well as five other programs that won’t appear on KTVB. Eventually, KTVB plans to produce newscasts unique to 24/7 NewsChannel and explore more local programming.

"The first thing we did was convert the existing two-channel automation system that ran both the Boise and Twin falls stations to accommodate a third completely unique channel,” said Scott Barella, vice president and chief engineer at Burst. “Then we converted the sources from analog to digital so that the new channel would be purely digital based.” Burst had previously converted nearly 70 per cent of the existing analog plant to an SDI embedded plant.

The system is comprised of a Thomson Grass Valley Profile XP Media Platform server, a Grass Valley Concerto routing switcher with Encore control and monitoring software, and a Sundance Digital automation system. Burst designed and implemented the new service in conjunction with Sundance Digital and Thomson engineers.